With the Taliban’s reign of terror continuing, will the PTI change drift?
The hope that a new terror-free dawn shall arise in Khyber Pakthunkhwa (KP) after the formation of the new provincial government has been extinguished by one gunshot. Farid Khan, an MPA for the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) in Hangu, was gunned down on Monday. While a protest rally was taken out and a strike called in the Hangu area for the popular candidate, the question being asked is what does it mean for the policies that the new PTI-led coalition will pursue? The PTI has been driving home the agenda that peace talks and an end to the drone strikes are the path to restoring peace in the beleaguered province. The party, as a matter of policy, does not condemn the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), and did not come to the verbal support of the Awami National Party (ANP), Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) and the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), when the three were targeted during the election campaign.
Early indications are that the tide has turned. A TTP commander, Mufti Hamid, was arrested in a joint operation for alleged involvement in the killing of Farid Khan. Farid belonged to a poor family in the Rabiakhel tribe in the Orakzai Agency and was fielded as a consensus candidate by 29 villages. Whatever the circumstances of his killing, that the TTP is continuing to target the political leadership in KP, like they did with the ANP, is not a good sign for those championing the agenda of peace without taking into count all the considerations. The PTI as a political party has perhaps offered the most mainstream front for the Taliban to be able to enter politics proper. However, Farid’s killing suggests the TTP is out with a more dangerous agenda and shall continue to target the PTI-led coalition.
If so, the leadership of both the PTI and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) will be forced to reconsider their position on talks and drones soon enough. While a complete investigation of the killing must be awaited, the Taliban threat to the KP is still quite significant. That an MPA belonging to a party committed to Islam, peace talks and ending drone strikes can be targeted by the militants should be a pointer towards re-thinking the strategy of how to deal with the Taliban. Terrorists tend to remain terrorists; and the more pliant the civilian government, the more easy they find picking out targets. The question for Imran Khan now is: if any more PTI workers are targeted in the KP, will he and his party change its strategy on how to deal with the TTP? Surely, the sad murder of Farid Khan is an eye-opener for many.
PTI and Imran Khan should take a firm stand against TTP and its cohorts. These people should be defeated militarily. There is no other way. They are not going to understand any other language. They are spreading terror in the country. This is their way to subjugate people. Their narrowminded Islam can not be implimented in Pakistan or for that matter in any other place of the universe. Killing elected representatives, two cases in just two days, Hangu and Peshawer is going aginst peoples wishes. Take this step today or you have pay the price in next few months or so by offering many more MNAs and MPAs getting killed. This suggestion is not only for Imran Khan it is for Nawaz Sharif and other politicians too if you want no more bloodshed.
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